Minor Character Appreciation Thread

[Eltosian Kadath]

Now I don't want to anyone mentioning any character you could even pretend to consider a main character or even major in this thread, this for all those Brom, Vander, and Matthis lovers to gush about their favorites minor characters that no one else seems to appreciate. Obviously this is also an excuse for me to talk about a bunch of minor characters that I appreciate, and this is a place for all of you to do the same...yeah  might have gone a bit overboard below, but its fun to talk about the units you like that aren't important enough to generally get much attention from others.

 

Lets start with one that I am probably the only person that has ever cared about them, the minor villain from Genealogy of the Holy War's chapter 4, the mercenary leader Lamia. The vicious leader of an all female mercenary band (the game even brings out all the obscure female enemy sprites just for her little band), famed for their ruthlessness, and being one of the few minor bosses with a unique face sprite (although it is speculated that it might have originally been planned as a face used for a younger Queen Hilda...). She is just plain cool for such a minor villain.

Moving onto generation 2, I have a soft spot for the substitute unit Asaello, the hitman of Connacht. With such a title, one may think I am fawning over minor villains again, but this hitman takes such an ignoble path to help feed the orphans that he grew up with, and has always had a soft spot for children. As someone who also has a soft spot for children, I can kinda relate to the guy. It is a down right a shame that he was cut from Thracia 776, as he would have fit in there perfectly, but they didn't want to imply too much about Thracia 776's continuity by including the replacements...

Next comes a hero from Thracia 776 with Miranda, and with her being the princess of Alster with a noticeable impact on the plot it might seem like a bit of a cheat, but she is not only exclusive to the least popular route of Thracia 776, but also generally considered a difficult to use unit, and much as it pains me to say it, she is. Really she shouldn't be an optional character, as she makes Leif's disastrous attack on Alster make so much more sense. She has a lot of fun spunk to go with her fiery magic, although it is really tough to get her off the ground.

Another Thracia unit, its time to talk about the oft overshadowed Eda. Poor girl had to come with her top tier prepromoted brother Dean, so no one looks at this young dragon rider, but she is still a flier, and a cool little dragon rider, and I have trained her enough to see her become a powerhouse on her own. I kind of pity her really, she gets unfairly overshadowed by units Thracia showers with gifts, and she is constantly putting the feeling of other above her own, following her brother into exile, and in her ending sacrificing her joy to help Altena.

I am going to cheat a little here, as I would be remiss not to mention my love of the Triangle Attack of Ostia, the three great generals Bors, Barthe, and Gwendolyn. This poor trio always gets trash talked, with the dutiful Wendy oft called one of the worst units in Binding Blade, but they can combine their powers into the automatic hit and crit of a deadly Triangle attack. That isn't to dismiss the over protective big brother she looks up to so much, or that loyalist of knights Barthe. What can I say, its fun to setup the right positioning to maximize my number of triangle attacks, and the more restrictive movements of an armored knight just makes it all the more satisfying when you can setup multiple in a turn due to the extra planning needed.

In a very similar vein, I love New Mystery's Axey boy trio as well, with their silly names, and the jokes about people not being able to distinguish Cord and Bord, with ol' Barst as a bit of an outlier. There the lack of the rescue command adds a whole new layer of difficulty to the setup for them to make thing all the more fun, and they hit some impressive benchamarks with the triangle attack as well.

Time for another trio, as I like all the units you recruit in Blazing Blade's Kinship's Bond. I rather like dragon riders, and that split haired Heath was the first one I ever got the chance to use. As for Rath, the quite horse archer that defies discrimination is an interesting mix that appeals to me. Finally a quick word on Isadora, but it always felt a bit funny that she felt more like a friend of Eliwood's mom than him, and discovering her fiance latter in the game was an interesting detail to stumble upon. I know I am rushing a bit here, but I have been rambling on way too long already.

I think I will jump ahead a few games before getting to New Mystery of the Emblem, with another edge case here, of my little prince, Yubello. A bit of a cheat again as he would be royalty if emperor Marth didn't take all the crowns for himself at the end of New Mystery. He is just my little boy, who can be the best mage he wants to be, and I care about my little boy far too much not to mention him a fair bit here.

It is time to jump ahead to the end of things with one from Engage, my Bouchy Boy. He grew on me, I started using him just because he was one of the more functional axe units, but I found a man that loves reading, even genre's generally seen as very feminine like romance novels, and is sensitive enough to cry when he needs to. Plus he has a fun personal skill if you use him after the early game.

 

[Fire Emblem Fan]

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

this for all those Brom, Vander, and Matthis lovers

I see what you've done here, hahaha.

Resident Brom guy here. Brom is my personal favorite character in the Tellius games, even over Elincia and Ike. He's just a simple family man with a friendly personality and an innocence about him. Everything about the man is just kind of wholesome? His supports with Zihark are a good showcase, where Zihark even tells Brom directly how big of a heart he has, and you can see it in both his casual conversation and encouragement of Nephenee. But his Base Conversation with Ike in Path of Radiance about the sack of rocks his fmaily gave him as a good luck charm is perhaps the best example of his character, it really showcases what makes Brom Brom. Aside from just being a generally pleasant fellow, I like his physical design a lot. It's something you really don't see very often in Fire Emblem, at least not in the characters you recruit. A 38-year-old (41 in RD), overwight, normal-brown-hair-color man is not the norm for FE. He looks plain, and it matches his personality. It's understated in how unique that is to FE. Brom is more or less an actual everyman, and it just makes him stand out to me in a series full of teenagers and young adults who are all super-powered in skills with the blade, and it makes him stand out against some of the older characters in the series you recruit because they're all by and large war veterans in the army or some big loud warrior of some kind. I don't think there was another Brom-type character prior to Brom, and I'm not sure any future character like this would stand out to me in the same way, because...Brom was first.

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Moving onto generation 2, I have a soft spot for the substitute unit Asaello, the hitman of Connacht. With such a title, one may think I am fawning over minor villains again, but this hitman takes such an ignoble path to help feed the orphans that he grew up with, and has always had a soft spot for children. As someone who also has a soft spot for children, I can kinda relate to the guy. It is a down right a shame that he was cut from Thracia 776, as he would have fit in there perfectly, but they didn't want to imply too much about Thracia 776's continuity by including the replacements...

Given the canonization of pairings, ignoring certain characters, minor to major to just plain unnecessary inconsistencies, I'm pretty convinced that Thracia 776 didn't give a flying monkey's ass about continuity with Genealogy. It did it's own thing established canon be damned. Which I can respect, if not like.

I've outed myself as a Bloom-Stan and I am not ashamed of it. What? He's a major character you say? Well please tell that to any of the crossover stuff Fire Emblem did because he's ignored everytime, dude barely even got into Thracia. Why do I like him? Well, armoured mage for one, but aside from that, I find him to be a genuinely nuance character that people dismiss. When we see him he's mostly "Grr generic angry boss guy. Pesky rebels". But we get references to how he treated Tine kindly and how the death of his son has heavily effected him. And when you think of the timeline, this guy was thrust into his position when he was about the same age as Sigurd, made a king out of nowhere and then expected to govern a foreign land that hates him all the while there's infiltration of the evil cult that he himself dislikes that he can't stop. I'm not so deluded as to say he's a hero, no, the guy is a straight up villain who uses a (Thor) hammer to try and solve every problem, but Genealogy's world building is good enough that it just makes someone in his position and all that it entails interesting to me.

I also love Coulter. Not because of his personality or role in the story or anything, just because they had the care to make him appear in both Thracia and Genealogy, but they didn't have to care to make sure he even looks remotely similar to the design they previously gave him.

 

I'll talk about some more non Jugdral characters later.

Edited April 12 by Jotari

[Etrurian emperor]

I think Azelle's a very good candidate. Among all the Fire Emblem characters he's kinda one of a kind. I don't think there are many other characters who are direct relatives of the main antagonist without being long lost children. Alm and Alear barely know their evil dads but Azelle was directly raised by Arvis and the two seem to have a complicated but relatively loving relationship. I don't think there are many bastards in the series either. 

There's also a lot of potential for growth in Azelle. He starts out as a meek boy in his brothers shadow but might grow into someone more confident. His stats seem to kinda reflect that as he goes from footie rookie to pony riding mage knight if you train him.

Vaida and Niime are everything Fire Emblem females usually aren't and that already makes them great. 

There's Tormod and Muarim. Aside from being very nice guys who fight slaves and are friendly to just about everyone their bond is also just wholesome. Its sweet the two are so devoted to each other despite not needing to be. Even more so when Muarim's backstory gives him all the reason in the world to want nothing to do with Tormod, but instead he raises him as a loving dad. And despite Muarim's patience with Tormod defeat quotes show he's not afraid of putting his foot down, no longer humoring Tormod's pretention of leadership and just ordering him back into line. 

Kasatai from Path of Radiance has a pretty impressive collection of good and bad traits that balance each other out. He's as bloodthirsty as you'd expect but also shows discomfort at the idea of Crimean civilians dying for his kings plans, he's skeptical about Ena's position of leadership but rather than being the biggest jerk about it he just tells it to her while being cordial and not seeming to blame her. This skepticism later turns into great loyalty. Despite clearly being a racist he does seem to really like and respect Ena. 

Count Erwin Fritz Gloucester was a nice black horse among the new additions in Three Hopes. Three Houses only portrays him in the most negative of terms so the more positive spin Hopes gave him was surprising. He's still scheming and somewhat disloyal but for a cause. Rather than being the biggest prick out there his shady actions just stem from him wanting to provide for his territory and keep his citizens safe. The game seems to depict a man who's naturally nice but steels himself to do his duties. Later on when freed from his job we see a dorky old man who's not unlike his dorky son. 

[Saint Rubenio]

As a minor character enjoyer, I tend to gravitate towards nobodies, and this includes perhaps the biggest nobody of them all - Frost, from BSFE, later reintroduced in FE12 in such an asinine way that he went on to become one of the most, if not the most unpopular character in FE. This is not just me saying it, it's also CyL saying it, as he was the third character to end up dead last. I think the most votes he ever got was like, 50 or 60? And that was the time I voted for him three times from three different computers every day.

Let me just link the full-on essay I wrote about Frost some time back.

9 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Lets start with one that I am probably the only person that has ever cared about them, the minor villain from Genealogy of the Holy War's chapter 4, the mercenary leader Lamia.

I mean, I cared enough to put make her a portrait and put her in my bad guys hack lol

7 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

A 38-year-old (41 in RD), overwight, normal-brown-hair-color man is not the norm for FE. He looks plain, and it matches his personality. It's understated in how unique that is to FE. Brom is more or less an actual everyman, and it just makes him stand out to me in a series full of teenagers and young adults who are all super-powered in skills with the blade, and it makes him stand out against some of the older characters in the series you recruit because they're all by and large war veterans in the army or some big loud warrior of some kind. I don't think there was another Brom-type character prior to Brom, and I'm not sure any future character like this would stand out to me in the same way, because...Brom was first.

Just to be pedantic, there's a third flavor of old FE guy - the old magic man.

I'd say Dorothy from FE6 fits a similar pattern as Brom, even if not in the exact same ways (she's much younger, for one). If it's uncommon for male characters in FE to look plain, female characters being anything other than perfect supermodels is just about unheard of. Dorothy stands out as one of the very, very few women in FE with a genuinely different design that isn't conventionally attractive to a T. Heck, if you remove the really old women (all three of them) from the equation, it's basically just her, Brom's daughter and maybe Vaida sharing this distinction!

However, unlike Meg, who's more "stylized," so to speak, with her cartoonish mouth and eyes (though her design is still pretty neat don't get me wrong), Dorothy's just a regular girl. She has freckles, a slightly weird face and a rather dreadful haircut. And that makes her stand out among the sea of perfect-looking girls, much like it does Brom. She looks like someone you might've gone to school with, and I think that's really awesome and we should get a few more of those.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

 I don't think there are many other characters who are direct relatives of the main antagonist without being long lost children. Alm and Alear barely know their evil dads but Azelle was directly raised by Arvis and the two seem to have a complicated but relatively loving relationship. I don't think there are many bastards in the series either. 

Guinevere is the one who springs to mind. She also has the sibling who actually knows the villain dynamic and it's definitely played for a lot more drama than Azelle has the opportunity for. She's also a bastard.

One thing I don't think we have seen is the parent of the villain as a hero. Closest is Alvis and his minor resistance to Julius, but he's still very much a villain in his own right (Deirdre is also technically playable but we don't really see her as a mother to Julius). Of course most villains are centuries old dragons or wizards or stuff, so a parent who needs to regretfully out their spawn down isn't really forthcoming. Now I need to petition IS to put Veld's mother into a Thracia remake. Coming to think of it, is there any Hellene in Binding Blade? Is she still living in Bern somewhere or did Desmond get rid of her at some point?

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'd say Dorothy from FE6 fits a similar pattern as Brom, even if not in the exact same ways (she's much younger, for one). If it's uncommon for male characters in FE to look plain, female characters being anything other than perfect supermodels is just about unheard of. Dorothy stands out as one of the very, very few women in FE with a genuinely different design that isn't conventionally attractive to a T. Heck, if you remove the really old women (all three of them) from the equation, it's basically just her, Brom's daughter and maybe Vaida sharing this distinction!

However, unlike Meg, who's more "stylized," so to speak, with her cartoonish mouth and eyes (though her design is still pretty neat don't get me wrong), Dorothy's just a regular girl. She has freckles, a slightly weird face and a rather dreadful haircut. And that makes her stand out among the sea of perfect-looking girls, much like it does Brom. She looks like someone you might've gone to school with, and I think that's really awesome and we should get a few more of those.

Feel obligated to bring up Fates Boss Candace now. Though she's also stylized like Meg (and not made to look as cute because minor villain). Dorothy really is ironically unique in how un-unique she looks.

Edited April 12 by Jotari

[Etrurian emperor]

Its a bit strange to imagine him as ''minor'' due to how iconic he is, and how much he's playable compared to everyone else but Haar counts. He's not a main character after all or even particularly close to any of the main characters. His closest bond is with another minor character. 

And yet for some reason the funny sleepy guy with little plot relevance gets boss conversation with about any enemy imaginable, and practically none go for the low hanging sleep gimmick. Its nice how an unimportant gimmick character can ''trick'' you like this. 

[Nauriam]

There's a lot of love for Brom here, and he deserves all of the love he gets in my opinion. For that trope though, I think Hicks does it even better. It's basically the same archetype, where you get a father fighting for a good cause for the sake of his family. Although I like Brom's design marginally better for what they're going for, Hicks also definitely looks like just a normal person. And his mullet is top tier.

Hicks also does not fill a unique roll in the game at all. Brighton has every reason to be better than Hicks for story and gameplay reasons alike (aside from Hicks' superior fcm of 2). But it's Thracia, so whoever you want can become god-like. It doesn't make Hicks more appealing to use over Brighton, but it does make him very viable if you do choose to use him.

I also want to mention Ronan who has a total main character look, but is just hilarious across the board stat-wise. If only Kaga had invented magic bows yet. I think Ronan's 3 movement stars, 3% movement growth, and general silliness is very charming.

[Jotari]

23 minutes ago, Nauriam said:

There's a lot of love for Brom here, and he deserves all of the love he gets in my opinion. For that trope though, I think Hicks does it even better. It's basically the same archetype, where you get a father fighting for a good cause for the sake of his family. Although I like Brom's design marginally better for what they're going for, Hicks also definitely looks like just a normal person. And his mullet is top tier.

Hicks also does not fill a unique roll in the game at all. Brighton has every reason to be better than Hicks for story and gameplay reasons alike (aside from Hicks' superior fcm of 2). But it's Thracia, so whoever you want can become god-like. It doesn't make Hicks more appealing to use over Brighton, but it does make him very viable if you do choose to use him.

I also want to mention Ronan who has a total main character look, but is just hilarious across the board stat-wise. If only Kaga had invented magic bows yet. I think Ronan's 3 movement stars, 3% movement growth, and general silliness is very charming.

Magic bows would only be slightly useful for Ronan. His memetastic magic growth is held back quite a bit by his literal 0 base magic. He'll hit his cap eventually because he starts level 1, especially if you give him magic scrolls, but you'll have to actually funnel enough exp into him for him to be a capable magic bow user. His movement stars and movement growth along with a pretty useful Adept are going to help him a lot more than his magic. Though if Thracia had Shadow Dragon style reclassing he'd be a hilariously good mage, as class changing could give him the class base for mages and he's probably get an extra 20% growth or something.

Edited April 12 by Jotari

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Another minor character I really like that I want to highlight is Isadora. She's criminally overlooked among the other Blazing Blade characters. She's a really fantastic character with a multitude of surprisingly varied supports, they range across several different topics that are all personal to her and really define her character. She's one of the most developed characters, but it's understated and hidden because she's a minor character and by the time you get her, you'll probably already have Kent, Sain, or Lowen trained up.

I also really like Castor. Almost all of his backstory is in material outside of the games, but actually knowing what his backstory is really made me appreciate the character a whole lot. Tragedy surrounds this man and it really makes you understand why he's doing what he's doing, and why his portraits always look so melancholy. He's a guy I root for to get what he needs for his family, darn it!

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'd say Dorothy from FE6 fits a similar pattern as Brom, even if not in the exact same ways (she's much younger, for one). If it's uncommon for male characters in FE to look plain, female characters being anything other than perfect supermodels is just about unheard of. Dorothy stands out as one of the very, very few women in FE with a genuinely different design that isn't conventionally attractive to a T. Heck, if you remove the really old women (all three of them) from the equation, it's basically just her, Brom's daughter and maybe Vaida sharing this distinction!

However, unlike Meg, who's more "stylized," so to speak, with her cartoonish mouth and eyes (though her design is still pretty neat don't get me wrong), Dorothy's just a regular girl. She has freckles, a slightly weird face and a rather dreadful haircut. And that makes her stand out among the sea of perfect-looking girls, much like it does Brom. She looks like someone you might've gone to school with, and I think that's really awesome and we should get a few more of those.

Dorothy is another character I've really come to appreciate, for many of the same reasons as Brom and many of the reasons you listed. She's so ordinary, but it works, she has genuinely good supports and is unique in how un-unique she is.

[Saint Rubenio]

On the villainous side, there's FE8's finest minor villain in a cast full of great minor and major villains. It's funny because the way people talk about him it feels like he's a major villain, but he only appears three times and has a total of four scenes in the game, one of which he does basically nothing in. And yet, the concept with him is so disturbing and at the same time, so pitiable, and so well-executed. He stays with you and makes you think he's a bigger villain than he was, because what little time he had, he used better than villains with four times his screentime in the series.

You can probably guess who I'm talking about. If not, go play FE8.

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Feel obligated to bring up Fates Boss Candace now. Though she's also stylized like Meg (and not made to look as cute because minor villain). Dorothy really is ironically unique in how un-unique she looks.

The Fates bossmen are funny because I find them all to have just plain better designs than the playable cast of Fates. Same for the generics. Then among the playables, the Corrinsexuals have better designs than the non-Corrinsexuals, who in turn tend to have better designs than the royals. It's like the more important you are in Fates, the worse you look lol

Anyway, all this to say, yeah, Candace is really cool. Again, we need more unconventional designs, body types, imperfect people. Variety is the spice of life, dammit!

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

One thing I don't think we have seen is the parent of the villain as a hero. Closest is Alvis and his minor resistance to Julius, but he's still very much a villain in his own right (Deirdre is also technically playable but we don't really see her as a mother to Julius). Of course most villains are centuries old dragons or wizards or stuff, so a parent who needs to regretfully out their spawn down isn't really forthcoming. Now I need to petition IS to put Veld's mother into a Thracia remake. Coming to think of it, is there any Hellene in Binding Blade? Is she still living in Bern somewhere or did Desmond get rid of her at some point?

The parent of a villain would be an insanely cool concept for a playable character, but that'd require IntSys to be creative enough to want to do anything interesting with parents. Which they just don't seem inclined to do, so uh... eh.

I'm still hoping for a game where the idealistic young teen main character dies and the parent (or parents) turns out to be the main character instead. So far I've only seen that be done in one (1) videogame in my entire life playing videogames, and even there you could also get the dad killed instead depending on your choices. Thankfully (as morbid as that is to say in this situation), though, I got the child killed and got to enjoy the more interesting storyline. And the heartache.

1 hour ago, Nauriam said:

There's a lot of love for Brom here, and he deserves all of the love he gets in my opinion. For that trope though, I think Hicks does it even better. It's basically the same archetype, where you get a father fighting for a good cause for the sake of his family. Although I like Brom's design marginally better for what they're going for, Hicks also definitely looks like just a normal person. And his mullet is top tier.

Hicks also does not fill a unique roll in the game at all. Brighton has every reason to be better than Hicks for story and gameplay reasons alike (aside from Hicks' superior fcm of 2). But it's Thracia, so whoever you want can become god-like. It doesn't make Hicks more appealing to use over Brighton, but it does make him very viable if you do choose to use him.

Shameless self promo but you might enjoy this.

Definitely agreed with this. Hicks is such a wonderful literal who.

15 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Dorothy is another character I've really come to appreciate, for many of the same reasons as Brom and many of the reasons you listed. She's so ordinary, but it works, she has genuinely good supports and is unique in how un-unique she is.

I feel like most of Binding Blade's cast is generally underrated. Understandably so, I'll admit, because their characterizations are all tucked away in FE6's horrendous support system. But when you actually get around to reading those supports, it's a surprisingly varied and interesting roster. For the most part.

[Nauriam]

3 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Shameless self promo but you might enjoy this.

Definitely agreed with this. Hicks is such a wonderful literal who.

You know what's incredible about this? I have seen this video before, and it was before I joined this forum. It feels weird seeing your name as the person who posted it after reading so much of your stuff on the forum. Great video btw

1 hour ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I also really like Castor. Almost all of his backstory is in material outside of the games, but actually knowing what his backstory is really made me appreciate the character a whole lot. Tragedy surrounds this man and it really makes you understand why he's doing what he's doing, and why his portraits always look so melancholy. He's a guy I root for to get what he needs for his family, darn it!

Castor is really cool. From just what is in his games, Caeda's recruitment conversation paints a little bit of a backstory but also leaves a lot to the imagination in a good way. I wish archers were more fun to use in the Archanea games. I feel very similarly about Warren as I do Castor in that I wish I had used them in their games, but when I played them I always ended up benching them eventually.

[Jotari]

I personally take the perspective that Kaga didn't put it in the game, so I'm free to ignore Castor's backstory. I find it way more interesting if the dude is just full of shit and is lying 100% of the time. There's no sick mother at all and he worked for Pirates because the dude is just bastard with a soppy looking face that he uses to his advantage. More proof of this comes from BS Saga, which takes place before Shadow Dragon (and any possibility of Kaga's dead sister backstory) where he's actively taking notes from Rickard on how to manipulate people. I think he's even named after a thief from 1001 Arabian Knights (though I haven't read any of those stories so I don't know how positive or negative Kashim is).

Edited April 12 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

Hmm, gonna say, for me minor characters I like the most would probably be Sonya and Genny. I like their characterizations and how they play off well between each other. You'd think they would have relevance for who they are, but no, not even SoV rectified that. Genny, like Kliff, was the designated "member from the main character's circle of friends to not rise to secondary character status", which likely stems that they both were already optional to recruit back in Gaiden. And not even being Jedah's daughter gave Sonya much else either. Just a battle quote in SoV, and nothing even when fighting her own sisters. Which feels odd, considering things.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

On the villainous side, there's FE8's finest minor villain in a cast full of great minor and major villains. It's funny because the way people talk about him it feels like he's a major villain, but he only appears three times and has a total of four scenes in the game, one of which he does basically nothing in. And yet, the concept with him is so disturbing and at the same time, so pitiable, and so well-executed. He stays with you and makes you think he's a bigger villain than he was, because what little time he had, he used better than villains with four times his screentime in the series.

You can probably guess who I'm talking about. If not, go play FE8.

I've played the game several times and I have no idea who you're talking about. Is it Pablo?

28 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I personally take the perspective that Kaga didn't put it in the game, so I'm free to ignore Castor's backstory. I find it way more interesting if the dude is just full of shit and is lying 100% of the time. There's no sick mother at all and he worked for Pirates because the dude is just bastard with a soppy looking face that he uses to his advantage. More proof of this comes from BS Saga, which takes place before Shadow Dragon (and any possibility of Kaga's dead sister backstory) where he's actively taking notes from Rickard on how to manipulate people.

Castor's stuff comes from the Designer's notes, which I'm pretty sure were made long before BS FE.

YMMV, but I think it makes him more interesting that way. Gives the character more nuance and complexity than if he was just another good/bad character for the heck of it.

[Saint Rubenio]

27 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I've played the game several times and I have no idea who you're talking about. Is it Pablo?

The boss of Ruled by Madness.

[Acacia Sgt]

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The boss of Ruled by Madness.

Oh, well that makes more sense.

Should've just said that from the beginning, man.

Okay, serious note, I think it's the first time I'm seeing someone refer to him as a minor villain. That threw me off his trail.

Also, why the secrecy of hiding his name?

[Saint Rubenio]

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

Okay, serious note, I think it's the first time I'm seeing someone refer to him as a minor villain. That threw me off his trail.

Like I said, most people talk about him as if he did more than he really does. But his entire involvement in the game boils down to:

Chapter 5x: He's just there until he isn't.

Chapter 8: He encounters Eirika and tells her some lies.

Chapter 9: He tries to get Eirika's bracelet, but the clap of the blade concealed within his doublet kept alerting Seth.

Chapter 16: He goes into a room, says ominous things, talks to Riev/Lyon, has the best battle convos in the game, dies.

He does have more screentime than the likes of Breguet or O'Neill but his impact in the overall plot is very small, and he's less relevant than the gemstone generals. It's just that he makes a big impact with the time he does have, thanks to how good his concept and its execution are.

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

Also, why the secrecy of hiding his name?

Ehh. Just felt like being a little dramatic, is all. I really thought it was obvious lol

[Acacia Sgt]

14 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Like I said, most people talk about him as if he did more than he really does. But his entire involvement in the game boils down to:

Chapter 5x: He's just there until he isn't.

Chapter 8: He encounters Eirika and tells her some lies.

Chapter 9: He tries to get Eirika's bracelet, but the clap of the blade concealed within his doublet kept alerting Seth.

Chapter 16: He goes into a room, says ominous things, talks to Riev/Lyon, has the best battle convos in the game, dies.

He does have more screentime than the likes of Breguet or O'Neill but his impact in the overall plot is very small, and he's less relevant than the gemstone generals. It's just that he makes a big impact with the time he does have, thanks to how good his concept and its execution are.

I mean, on that logic, then someone like Gharnef would be a minor villain since they also don't show up much, or do much outside backstory purposes. Which... also wouldn't make much sense.

I'd put him more as secondary villain, not minor.

14 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ehh. Just felt like being a little dramatic, is all. I really thought it was obvious lol

Maybe you should've, because now I thought you were talking about Vigarde, not Orson. lol

[Saint Rubenio]

7 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I mean, on that logic, then someone like Gharnef would be a minor villain since they also don't show up much, or do much outside backstory purposes. Which... also wouldn't make much sense.

I'd put him more as secondary villain, not minor.

I was comparing him to his own game's villains. Sure, Gharnef has like three scenes, but that's the case for every book 1 villain because book 1 has very little story in general. Compared to the villains in his own game, Orson has less screentime and does less things in the plot than the gemstone generals (Glen is arguable) and Vigarde, so I'm more tempted to call them the secondary villains and place him in a different box.

But well, we're getting lost in semantics here. Secondary, minor, I suppose it doesn't matter. He's just a good villain.

14 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Maybe you should've, because now I thought you were talking about Vigarde, not Orson. lol

Ahahaha. Oh, well, we cleared it up now.

[Etrurian emperor]

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Maybe you should've, because now I thought you were talking about Vigarde, not Orson. lol

I thought he was talking about Valter. 

On that topic I've always had a soft spot for Caelach. Clearly the least plot important member of the evil trio but I think that kinda enhanches him. He's a very human antagonist from very humble origins. He doesn't serve dark gods, doesn't want to destroy the world, isn't insane but just wants a throne and a fat paycheck. 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Chapter 9: He tries to get Eirika's bracelet, but the clap of the blade concealed within his doublet kept alerting Seth.

Thanks, I hate this wording.

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Chapter 8: He encounters Eirika and tells her some lies.

Chapter 9: He tries to get Eirika's bracelet, but the clap of the blade concealed within his doublet kept alerting Seth.

Wait, isn't he inadvertently responsible for Eirika's reunion with her brother? Orson traps her in the castle, shortly before Ephraim arrives via a different entrance point. Had the bridge not been blown out, she might've fled immediately, and the siblings would just miss each other.

Also, is four appearances really so few? That seems roughly on-par with what most of the "Sacred Stones of Grado" received. Two or three backstory appearances, then the one time you fight them. Two, in Riev's case. Selena disappears off the face of the earth for Eirika, while Glen does the same for Ephraim. Orson might actually be more important than some of them.

9 hours ago, Jotari said:

Magic bows would only be slightly useful for Ronan. His memetastic magic growth is held back quite a bit by his literal 0 base magic.

Thracian Pure Water go brrr.

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

However, unlike Meg, who's more "stylized," so to speak, with her cartoonish mouth and eyes (though her design is still pretty neat don't get me wrong), Dorothy's just a regular girl.

Meg is honestly cute-as-a-button. I love her design, and what we get of her as a character, so flipping much.

Dorothy, too, I really like. Just have more normal-looking characters, please! In a world of anime waifus and hasubandos, that's what it takes to stand out.

[Jotari]

7 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Hmm, gonna say, for me minor characters I like the most would probably be Sonya and Genny. I like their characterizations and how they play off well between each other. You'd think they would have relevance for who they are, but no, not even SoV rectified that. Genny, like Kliff, was the designated "member from the main character's circle of friends to not rise to secondary character status", which likely stems that they both were already optional to recruit back in Gaiden. And not even being Jedah's daughter gave Sonya much else either. Just a battle quote in SoV, and nothing even when fighting her own sisters. Which feels odd, considering things.

I've played the game several times and I have no idea who you're talking about. Is it Pablo?

Castor's stuff comes from the Designer's notes, which I'm pretty sure were made long before BS FE.

YMMV, but I think it makes him more interesting that way. Gives the character more nuance and complexity than if he was just another good/bad character for the heck of it.

I'd say a bad person who successful fools all of the heroes because he's good at acting and has a sympathetic face is quite a bit more interesting and unique than another character who does bad things because of a tragic backstory.

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

 

Thracian Pure Water go brrr.

 

This is true.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ehh. Just felt like being a little dramatic, is all. I really thought it was obvious lol

If it helps, I figured out you were talking about Orson right away.

[Acacia Sgt]

5 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I'd say a bad person who successful fools all of the heroes because he's good at acting and has a sympathetic face is quite a bit more interesting and unique than another character who does bad things because of a tragic backstory.

So, like Anthony?

[Fire Emblem Fan]

A couple other minor characters that are among my favorites are Gregor and Selphina.

When I first played Awakening and recruited Gregor, I took a liking to him almost immediately. The way he spoke instantly made him stand out, and that made me want to dive into his supports. And when I did, I was happy with what I found. Gregor is a great, well-rounded character, and his "gimmick" isn't nearly as played out for laughs or pushed into your face or anything like some of the other character gimmicks in Awakening. He simply had good chemistry with pretty much everyone, gave both himself and some others some good backstory, and was a good and endearing dude. He's one of my favorite characters in Awakening. Sometimes I think he's my absolute favorite in Awakening.

With Selphina, there isn't a whole lot to go off of simply because Thracia 776 was before the era of support and/or base conversations, and a lot of the cast only got a few lines of dialogue, if even that. But Selphina was lucky enough to get a little bit more. She has a history with Finn through Ethlyn, and her attitude towards him makes her stand out, whether or not the attitude is justified. She gets just enough in the game that I can get to know her character, enough that she leaves some sort of an impact. She's cool.

[Jotari]

21 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

So, like Anthony?

As a playable character! Though my mind was more going to Lifis.

Edited April 13 by Jotari